The Power of Community

Sara Carle / Office Manager and Administrative Assistant to Spiritual Formation, Congregational Care & Missions

“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves … Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” Romans 12:10, 15

Pastor Justin posed a question a few weeks ago during his sermon, “what type of lesson is your life teaching?” This got me thinking a lot about my life and the kind of legacy that I want to leave, but also the kind of legacy that I think I’m leaving versus what I’m actually leaving.

As some of you may know, the last two weeks have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me and my family. My grandmother went home to be with Jesus at the age of 96. She was a mother to seven children and grandmother to … a lot. She left quite a legacy of faith, family, quiet strength, and love behind. Her services were the two days preceding my son’s high school graduation. He is my youngest child and thus my last child in school.

All of this got me thinking about community and how we love the people in those communities. Over the last few years, I watched my parents, my aunts, and my uncles show us by their actions how to care for our elderly with respect, dignity, and love as they worked to keep my grandparents in their home as long as possible. At the services for my grandmother there were many people who came out to pay their respects from all different communities – immediate family, friends of family, friends of my grandparents, work friends, high school/college friends, Tops store friends, etc. At graduation there was a whole other community of administrators, teachers, mom-friends, and students who grew up in our house like our bonus kids. People who we have invested in, who have invested in us and our kids and now that is ending or changing.

All of this is a very long-winded way of saying that we are all given communities to be a part of from God – work communities, school communities, friend groups, Bible study groups, etc. He has placed these people in our lives for a reason. In my opinion, we often think of legacies as something that is only decided or determined at the end of one’s life, but the reality is that we are leaving a legacy each day. These communities that we have been given, some may last your whole life, but others will only be for a season. So, I ask you, “What are you doing with what God has given you? Are you using it as a mission field? Are you investing in and loving on the people in your communities (even the difficult-to-love ones)?”

Back to that question at the top, “what type of lesson is your life teaching?” Google defines legacy as a lasting impact of an individual’s life. Are you known as the office complainer or the one with a potty mouth, the gossiper, or are you known as the one who can be trusted, the one who is caring, kind, and compassionate. I’m not sure about you, but I want to be known as the latter. The one people can come to for help, for prayer, for Jesus. Let’s go today and be those people and leave a legacy worthy of Jesus wherever we go.